What would you do about this eBay buyer?

[holygrailvideogames.com]

I had a buyer purchase 3 items from me on eBay today. He paid with Paypal. My PayPal account blocks payments unless the person pays with a confirmed address. The guy goes ahead and pays with PayPal and then later on emails me to send them to a different address. I told him that I would not do this because of PayPal's seller protection policy. He claims that he was worried that someone would steal the items. I offered to require a signature so that the post office would not just leave the package outside of his home. He then emails me back with this email.

 

 

send it to my house but do not have someone sign for

it. we work for a living 6 days a week and noone is

here to sign for it if i do not have it by next tues.

i will e-mail you because my friendly little

neighborhood bastards probably took it. i can not

believe you will not ship to the other address i have

gone well out of my way to make people happy but

obviously you are not one of them. by the way check to

make sure i did not cancel your payment because this

is bullshit over shipping an item!!!!

 

I didn't really care for this message and now I wonder if I ship the items if he will try a chargeback just to be a jerk. What would you do? I have already had one person try to rip me off on eBay and I am just trying to protect myself against fraud. Thanks for your help.

[CPUWIZ]

Why don't you trust the guy ? Bad feedback ? No Feedback ?

 

I do this all the time, I pay with PayPal for 95% of all auctions I win and when the seller needs a confirmed address, that's what I give them.

 

I used to always ask them to ship it to my work address though because I didn't want anybody taking my packages (especially not when they contain items like Waterworld or something else expensive !).

 

Regards

-R

[StanJr]

I don't like the tone of the message. It is VERY unprofessional and a bit rude at the end. He explains himself well, but then begins to bitch when he did not get his way. mcgrail0007 has EVERY reason to be put off with this guy.

 

I'd refund his money and thank him for TRYING to be a productive citizen. Perhaps with more practice he will even get it right! I'm sure other people will want mcgrail0007's items.

[CPUWIZ]

I agree with you about the tone of the message - I don't even like the fact that it's all lower case

 

But put yourself in the buyers position and imagine that this happens to him all the time. Wouldn't you get ticked off yourself ?

 

It happened to me quite a few times where not only the seller refused to ship to my work but also sent the item so that it had to be signed for. Which resulted in me not getting my item until the weekend because I generally don't have time to go to the post office during the week.

 

Too many rules, so little time ...

[StanJr]

Sure I'd get ticked off, but I'd try to handle it a little more like an intelligent grown-up.

[Varan]

So send it to his work address and arequire a signature there.

[holygrailvideogames.com]

His feedback is fine. I would send the package to the other address, but PayPal requires that the package be sent to his confirmed address in order to qualify for the seller protection. If I had dealt with him before or if I knew others who had, I probably would send to his other address. But that is not the case. I have had a few problems with people on eBay. One woman tried to rip me off (took thousands from others - see eBay user conniemendoza) and I had one time when a kid bought and paid for my item using his mother's credit card. The mother went bezerk, but then realized what her son had did. I thought I had sold the item to the mom. I therefore am more cautious than I used to be.

[CPUWIZ]

Ahh, that makes a lot more sense, I just got ripped off myself actually. A seller by the name 'disneylandsmyhome' took me for a ride for 20 bucks.

 

That handle got suspended but she is also active under the handle 'disneylandorbust' so be careful !

 

[Philflound]

It's tough to handle this so it'll be your call. I personally would consider it, but I always ship things to the address they show, whether confirmed or not. I also always use a delivery confirmation so if the package "doesn't get there" I check the status. I've never lost a package yet.

 

Phil

[CaliColts]

As far as I am concerned, I will ship to the address they give me, confirmed or not (most new PayPal users are unconfirmed anyways).

 

If they don't insure it or pay for delivery confirmation, once I leave the post office its no longer my problem, seller protection or not.

 

If I did run into a situation where I thought the was something strange in

sending to another address, I would investigate before shipping, but

otherwise I dont worry.

[+Allan]

Of course if you just required them to send you a money order you would get your money and not have to worry about someone taking it back through the evil PayPal. Then you could send out the package. IMOHO Paypal doesn't really help the seller. There are have been a lot of complaints about this company anyways. Require them to send you money order. If they don't send it, you don't send the package. Yes you lose the auction fees but it's better then dealing with all that other crap. I have a bad feeling that Ebay is going to start penalizing people who don't use PayPal and eventually make it the only way you can pay. They'll make up something about it's the only way to protect people and force you to do it their way and therefore make more profit from us. Does this sound familair to anyone?

 

Allan

[Albert]

I've often had packages sent to an address other than my "verified" PayPal address and no one has ever complained about it. Most often I will do this when I want to ship something to work, as if you're not home during the day it can be a pain having to deal with packages. As a seller, I wouldn't really care too much, as long as it wasn't anything obviously suspicious and I already had my money. When you receive money with PayPal you can move it into a checking account immediately, right? I would assume at that point PayPal cannot touch the money?

 

..Al

[Room 34]

The PayPal confirmed address practice is well-advertised on their site and strongly encouraged, so anyone who uses PayPal frequently -- especially if they're confirmed -- ought to know it.

 

If this buyer doesn't want to play by the PayPal rules (even if they're just "recommendations" and not hard-and-fast rules), then he should consider paying by money order or some other method.

 

The best way to avoid a problem like this, I guess, would be to clearly state in the auction that any items paid for with PayPal will only ship to the confirmed PayPal address. Then the buyer has no room to complain.

[InfoMan]

Why don't you ask him to have his alternate address confirmed? If he doesn't want packages at his confirmed address you'd think he would have done something about getting it changed with Paypal...

 

- Trevor

[glitch]

I believe the only way to get an address confirmed is to have it match a credit card billing address. This would mean that the person would have to change one of their credit card billing address to their work (or other) address.

[glitch]

I believe the only way to get an address confirmed is to have it match a credit card billing address. This would mean that the person would have to change one of their credit card billing address to their work (or other) address.

[InfoMan]

When I signed up, they did the address confirmation by sending a letter with a code that I had to go in and enter to prove I had received it at the address they sent it to. They may have changed their method since then, though, it's been quite a while.

 

- Trevor

[zraider]

No infoman, they still confirm the same way, as I was confirmed only a couple of months ago.

With the attitude this buyer has, I'd be very wary. I've sold to unconfirmed buyers, but maybe I've been lucky. Just my take on the situation; I'd request a MO, or check that clears, but really I don't think you have any problem. I've filed a complaint with PayPal and it's a total joke. You have the option when filing a buyer complaint of stating "didn't receive item" or "item not as described" (wording not exact, but along these lines); either way, the buyer is usually on the losing end. If you have the money, take it and run, but do "cooperate" with PayPal if a complaint is filed so that you don't get a bad rep with them. I think it would take an act of Ebay to get a seller kicked off PayPal.

[bjybjy]

Ok, maybe I'm missing something here... say for instance he paid with a check and then wanted the item sent to an address other than the one on the check... would you do it? I sure would, without question. Could he still cancel the check? Yep.

 

I've sold probably close to 100 things through paypal, and probably half of them have gone to unconfirmed users. None of them gave me a hard time. I don't think this guy did until you gave him a hard time. I think in this case you stepped out of line. You entered into a binding legal contract to sell him that item. He could send it to Nepal, and as long as he pays for it, you have to send it there. Period. I don't know if he has or will, but I would say he'd be justified in leaving you negative feedback if you won't send it to the address he asked.

 

Just my 2 bits.

Tad

[InfoMan]

I personally have never had any problems as a seller with someone paying through paypal. I've even had situations where the package was to be sent to an address in WA, where it was then forwarded by the buyer's agent (family or friend) to him in Canada.

 

As a buyer, I've had one problem where an item that I paid for through paypal was never shipped. I complained to paypal and after an "investigation" that lasted a few days (at least they kept me waiting that long), they told me the seller was at fault, but there was no money in the seller's account, so there was nothing they could do.

 

I guess the lesson you can take from that, as a seller, is to withdraw the money now, so if you have problems paypal can't take it from you.

The only problems I have had as a seller were with CODs. After having packages returned on two different occasions (and having to eat the shipping expenses and still having an unsold product), I no longer accept COD.

[Trade-N-Games]

Work with your customers first. Read the fine print on Paypals site about the confirmed address and how it would protect you as a seller and I think they make it almost impossible to help you. First you must send item insured and have a delivery conformation on the item with signature just for the Paypal confirmed process to work. Im a seller on Ebay and I send to unconfirmed address all the time. Trust a good positive feedback on ebay and send item after it has been paid for. If its still a big deal to you put the wording in your auction and in your emails you send people after the auction ends and if people still cant follow your guidelines just say thanks and relist the item. Relisting your item might cost you few dollars but it’s better than mailing it off and loosing all of the money and game.

[holygrailvideogames.com]

I sent out the package today to the confirmed address. I used delivery confirmation and I did insure it. I just hope this guy doesn't leave me negative feedback. He bought three items so he can leave me three feedbacks. I do send packages all the time to those who are not verified, but I always send to confirmed addresses unless it is someone that I have dealt with before or if the item is of low value ($25 or less). I try to make all of the people who buy from me happy. I always insure items if they are $25 or more and I always use delivery confirmation. If there is a problem with an item that I did not insure I would refund the money myself.